spatialcomputing.info

AmazeVR, a Los Angeles-based company creating on-demand VR video, has raised $15 million in funding to refocus its efforts to create VR concerts. The company says its first major immersive concert will feature artist Megan Thee Stallion and debut this Spring at activations in select AMC theaters. In the future the company also plans to offer its immersive concerts to at-home headsets.

Update (January 11th, 2022): AmazeVR today announced that its latest funding totals $15 million. This includes $9.5 million raised in early 2021, purportedly bringing the company’s total funding to $30.8M.

The $15 million bridge financing round saw participation by Partners Investment, Smilegate Investment, Quantum Ventures Korea, ABC Partners, Everrich Group, and GS Futures, according to AmazeVR.

“This funding allows us to keep hiring aggressively,” says AmazeVR co-CEO Ernest Lee. “In 2021, we tripled our team in Hollywood and Seoul. We’ve been able to attract top talent from the industries we touch. This puts us in an ideal position to take full advantage of VR and the metaverse’s growing popularity, as we deliver breathtaking VR concerts from major artists, first to theaters, then to homes worldwide.”

The funding comes ahead of the company’s first “VR concert tour,” which will bring an immersive concert experience featuring artist Megan Thee Stallion to select AMC theaters this Spring. AmazeVR says the experience makes use of “proprietary 9K cameras” for capturing artists, environments based on Unreal Engine, and operates with some 100 headsets simultaneously.

In the future the company plans to use the same tech and platform to release new immersive concerts on a regular basis, including a at-home releases for those with VR headsets of their own.

The original article, which covers the $9.5 million portion of the AmazeVR investment from early 2021, continues below.

Original Article (April 12th, 2021): The latest round was led by Murex Partners, with participation from We Ventures, Bass Investment, and Dunamu & Partners. Additional existing investors joining the round include Mirae Asset Venture Investment, Mirae Asset Capital, Partners Investment, and Timewise Investment.

According to data reported by Crunchbase, the latest round brings the company’s lifetime financing to $25.3 million.

Founded in 2015, AmazeVR previously focused on building out its 360 video subscription service for VR headsets, which features a variety of content. The company has however recently pivoted to exclusively recording musical artists, letting fans get an up-close and personal view of pre-recorded content which has been mashed up with computer-generated effects.

“[M]ost artists do not spend all their time on the road, often only touring every few years, and when they are on tour, it’s only possible to hit the largest countries and cities,” the company explains in a press statement. “With AmazeVR’s Immersive Concert experience, however, artists can reach fans through movie theaters, VR headsets, unique pop-up events, and more.”

AmazeVR says it’s been working closely with artists and labels over the past several months, and that it now aims to ‘reinvent’ the fan experience.

“We’re rapidly building out our artist pipeline and striking broad distribution agreements to bring stellar artist-to-fan engagement to millions of people worldwide,” says Ernest Lee, co-CEO of AmazeVR. “Our efforts are further assisted by interest in the VR market, with Apple preparing to release a VR headset and the Oculus Quest 2 representing a growing percentage of Facebook’s revenue. As more and more consumers gain access to VR technologies– be they through headsets, theaters, or even their phones– there is enormous potential for Immersive Concerts.”

A pop-up activation is slated to arrive in LA sometime this year, which is said to include a virtual tour bus fitted with haptic chairs and VR headsets.

Additional reporting by Ben Lang